Tag Archives: Sam Allardyce

Two goals from Christian Benteke was needed to save Crystal Palace manager Sam Allardyce from suffering defeat against his former club Bolton wanderers in their FA Cup third round replay.

The League one team inadvertently took the lead when winger James Henry, who missed a number of chances in the first game, had looped over Julian Speroni in the second half to put the visiting team ahead.

With a quick exit threatening last season’s finalist, Allardyce quickly brought on Benteke, and the Belgian equalized not five minutes after coming on from the bench by heading in Mathieu Flamini’s cross.

Less than 10 minutes later, the former Liverpool player doubled the score for Palace, giving the Eagles the advantage. Collecting Andros Townsend’s cross with his back to goal, the striker spun and fired home the winner past the Bolton defense, scoring his 10th goal of the season.

The game then finished at the 2-1 score, with the Trotters having little to show for in attack — aside from a poke by Zach Clough that went just wide of the post.

This was Allardyce’s sixth game in charge of Palace after being appointed as manager, but also his first win. His attention would be needed this weekend in the Premier League as Palace stays just a place above the relegation zone.

Everton, whom they will play against this weekend, defeated Manchester City by 4-0 last weekend. The Manchester club are also Palace’s adversaries in the next round of the FA Cup.

“It is nice to get through and of course when Manchester City come in a couple of weeks it will be nice to play that game, but it is all about Everton in the league now,” he said after the match. “Wins grow confidence, there is no doubt about that. How much confidence we get from this will show on Saturday.”

Crystal Palace dismissed manager Alan Pardew after almost two years in charge following a string of disastrous results.

Sam “Big Sam” Allardyce is the bookmakers’ favourite to replace Pardew; his representative was understood to have talks with Palace’s chairman, Steve Parish, on Thursday evening.

Pardew was appointed on a three-and-a-half-year deal in January 2015, but the 55-year-old has been dismissed after a run of one victory in 11 games.

Crystal Palace also lost eight of their past 10 league games, and 22 over the calendar year, to slump to within a point of the Premier League relegation zone.

“I would just like to take the opportunity to thank everybody at Crystal Palace for their fantastic support,” Pardew said in a statement following his dismissal. “In particular a big thanks to the players who gave me absolutely everything and Steve Parish and his board.”

“Personally I have a lot of good feelings for this football club and am sad that my time there has ended. I feel that I have a special bond with the club and hope that hasn’t been affected.”

“Relegation is so costly and I feel, with no blame attached, we got ourselves in a rut and need a change,” Parish said.

“We hope a change will change things. We all bought into the decision to play a more expansive style of football. We all believed in it. That hasn’t worked. It’s no one’s fault. The players have been running their socks off for Alan, the spirit is good. But now we’re going to wind the dial back the other way.”

Meanwhile, Palace is yet to confirm who will take charge of the team for their league fixture at Watford on Boxing Day.

Gareth Southgate’s appointment as the England manager is expected on Wednesday, while an official announcement could take some more time.

Southgate has been in interim charge of the England national football team since Sam Allardyce left in September after just 67 days in charge, having been caught up in a newspaper investigation into corruption in football.

In his four games in charge Southgate was unbeaten, winning two and drawing two, including a win against Scotland this month that left England top of Group F in the World Cup qualifiers. England also defeated Malta and drew 0-0 in Slovenia before a 2-2 friendly draw with Spain in Southgate’s last game.

Following the end of his tenure as interim manager for England, Southgate spoke to a five-man panel at St George’s Park last week. The FA chairman, Greg Clarke, the chief executive, Martin Glenn, and the technical director, Dan Ashworth, the former England player Graeme Le Saux and the League Managers’ Association chairman, Howard Wilkinson, were involved.

The FA will also discuss Southgate’s backroom team with the future of Steve Holland on the agenda and reports suggest the Chelsea coach will be handed a full-time role with the senior national side. The 46-year-old has been combining his duties as Southgate’s No2, both with the junior team and during the latter’s four-game stint as interim senior manager.

The FA must also look at the age group setups with the under-20s manager, Aidy Boothroyd, having temporarily stepped up to replace Southgate with the under-21s. Boothroyd won his two games in charge to help the under-21s qualify for Euro 2017 in Poland with the draw made in Krakow on Thursday.

As England Under-21s manager, Southgate had then claimed that he did not feel ready for the senior job when it was available in the summer following Roy Hodgson’s exit after England’s poor run in Euro 2016. Under the same capacity role in Sam Allardyce’s England, Southgate also said the same thing.

When he takes charge of England, Southgate’s very first game will be in a testing friendly against Germany, before resuming the qualifying campaign against Lithuania, and Scotland a few months later.

Manchester United striker Marcus Rashford has been left out by England Under-21s just three days before the next senior squad was to be named.

The 18-year-old was part of England’s Euro 2016 squad in the summer.

However, he was not picked for the World Cup qualifier against Slovakia earlier this month, and instead debuted for the English under-21s against Norway, scoring a hat-trick in the process.

But following coach Sam Allardyce prompt dismissal, Rashford was left out of newly appointed Under-21s manager Aidy Boothroyd’s squad, as Gareth Southgate stepping up to lead the senior team for four matches.

It is easy to imagine Rashford would have a place in the senior squad once more.

He had been demoted because Allardyce had been concerned at Rashford’s lack of game time back in August, but it was not an issue in September, after Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho featured the young striker in more matches (five) and minutes (316) for United this month than Wayne Rooney (four and 277 respectively).

On the other hand, Southgate also reassured that Wayne Rooney retains his captaincy of the England squad as he prepares to name his squad for the World Cup qualifiers against Malta and Slovenia next month.

Southgate had informed the forward by phone that Rooney would remain an important part of the English squad despite the United player’s indifferent recent form, after he seeked assurances from the interim manager after a tumultuous few days as to what role he would play in the next four games.